Sunday, 13 April 2014

A visit to the London Book Fair by Ann Evans

Did
anyone go to the London Book Fair this week? I'd never been before
and was curious to know what it was like and whether it was mainly
for agents and publishers or whether it was useful for authors too.

So, teaming up with author Karen King, we
set off last Wednesday for a day out in London at the famous book
fair. Like me, Karen
hadn't been before either, so we'd made up our minds that even if we
felt like outsiders, we'd enjoy our day out in London regardless.

It
turned out however to be an excellent day, perfect for networking and
seeing what opportunities there are for writers. Obviously a lot of
authors aren't interested in working with publishers, but I'm always
on the look out for writing opportunities and will gladly write what
needs to be written if it will help pay my bills.

The
first thing we noticed was that there was a real buzz as you walked
up the steps to Earls Court, with everyone keen to get in and start
exploring. At one point we bumped into a fellow member of the SWWJ
(Society of Women Writers & Journalists) who was a seasoned
attendee at the LBF. She commented that the atmosphere of the event
was always a good indicator of the publishing world at the moment,
and her opinion was that things were pretty optimistic.

What
surprised me was the massive number of publishers and book packagers
who I'd never heard of. And taking the bull by the horns, Karen and I
got into conversations with many of these, who seemed very interested
to hear what sort of things we wrote about, and didn't mind telling
us what their requirements were.

Not
once did anyone ask if we were agented, and very few said that their
books were written in-house. Apart from one scheduled meeting that
Karen had with a publisher, we hadn't set up any other meetings
beforehand, yet got to chat to over a dozen different publishers,
packagers and editors.

Had
to laugh at one point – or rather everyone laughed at me. We were
approached by a young man in chefs whites that were splattered in
(fake) blood, offering bags of disgusting-looking horror sweets. He
was enthusing about Haute Cuisine – a restaurant with a yeuky
difference! (I won't go into details). Somehow, I slipped into
food-writer mode and asked him where the restaurant was and when it
was opening. In my head I was at the Good Food Show suddenly. After
everyone had fallen about laughing, I was loudly reminded that he was
promoting a new book – it wasn't real! Doohh!!

Hurrying
on, we squeezed into one of the many seminars going on. This was a
Kindle Direct Publishing talk on the theme of Success.
Judging by the packed room, it was clear that self publishing was
being taken very seriously.

Packed room for the Kindle Direct Publishing talk

Two two top ranking kindle authors were
talking, Rachel Abbott whose book Only the Innocent reached the #1 position in the UK Kindle Store (paid) in three months and stayed there for four weeks; and author Polly Courtney who has successfully published six books. They were talking about self promotion.
Here's a few tips from them:

Make
a marketing plan. While there is an element of luck to getting your
book noticed to start with, a marketing plan which is put into operation can make a massive
difference.

You
need to raise awareness of your book. There's a belief that
something needs to be seen seven times before people become aware of
it. Raise the awareness through blogs, guest blogs, blog tours,
social media etc. Always use a picture of your book whenever you're
communicating. It's all about visibility and discoverability.

Think
about people's interests and how what you've written can be linked
into their interests. Try and create the desire for them to want to
buy your book.

When
you direct people to your website, consider what they will see
there. Will there be blurbs about your books and reviews and extracts of reviews? Get as many reviews as you can from sources
such as Goodreads, Amazon and anywhere else your book appears, also
word of mouth reviews. Get real reviews from people who love your
books. Remind people to write an honest review if you know they've
read and enjoyed your book.

Think
about what action they need to take to get hold of your book. Have
you made easily accessible links to places like Amazon where they
can buy your book.

Hold
a book launch.

Make
a book trailer.

Send
out free ebooks to get reviews before your launch.

Look
at how other people do their marketing and self promotion – for
all kinds of products, not just books.

Keep
in touch with readers, so they become supportive of your work.

Get
people involved in a new book right from the start, eg when you're
doing your research etc.

You
need a good book cover and a professional edit.

We
also stopped by the Indee Book Collector's stand who had a huge
collection of indee books on offer – which they were giving away to
those who asked. And surprise surprise, Karen and I asked. We came
away with five or six books each, most gratefully received.

The
team on the stand explained that the Indee Book Collector is a
collective who take on authors who have self published at least ten
books, the aim being to support and promote each other.

The Indee Book Collective

It
had been a long day, and with aching feet but happy hearts, we headed
off to O'Neills bar where we met up with some fellow authors from the
SAS (Scattered Authors Society). Being the first to arrive, Karen and
I looked around to see if there were any likely authors there, as we
didn't personally know any of the Sassies who were meeting up. Karen
went up to two women sitting quietly enjoying a drink and said, "Do
you belong to the SAS?" With a look of horror they said they
didn't. So without a word of explanation, Karen left them - looking
like they wanted to dive under the table for cover!

So, did you go along to the London Book Fair this year, and what did you think of it?

5 comments:

I used to go quite often but gave up about ten years ago because nothing seemed to apply to me any more. Now indies are being taken seriously I might start going again. That sounds an interesting time, Ann.